Tribe Tidbits

June 25, 2014


feather2On June 16, Carlos Carrasco entered the game with one out in the 7th inning with a 4-3 lead over the Angels and went the distance to pick up his first career save. It was just the Indians 10th save of two or more innings dating back to 2000. However, MLB awards a save to any relief pitcher holding a lead the final three innings of the game, regardless of the score—a quirk in the save rule which led to five of the two-plus inning saves in that time span.

feather2Dating back to 2000, Carrasco joins Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez and Tom Mastny as the only Indians to record a save of two or more innings in a game in which the 9th inning presented a legitimate save opportunity (three run lead or less). But Sipp, Perez and Mastny all completed exactly two innings of work. The  last Indians pitcher to record a save in more than two innings of work in which he held on to a legitimate 9th-inning save situation was Eric Plunk in 1994.

feather2Making Carrasco’s save even more unique was the fact that he held on to a one-run lead for the entire two-plus innings. The last Tribe pitcher to record such a save was Rod Nichols in 1991. Nichols recorded the rare four-inning save, entering the game against the White Sox in the 6th inning with a 4-3 lead and going the distance for the save. The feat was a slightly more common pre-1990, as Doug Jones, Scott Bailes and Sid Monge all recorded such saves in the ’80s.

feather2Unfortunately the Grady Sizemore comeback seems to be over in Boston. Someone else may pick him up, but it’s pretty clear there’s not much left in the tank. Sizemore was one of just 150 players to hit 100+ home runs through his age-26 season, but few fizzled as quickly. Among those 150 players, only Tony Conigliaro and Curt Blefary hit fewer than Sizemore’s 12 home runs in their age 27-season and beyond. Only two other former Indians on the list failed to also reach 100 home runs post age 26: Cory Snyder and Hal Trosky, each with 48. Mark Reynolds is technically also on the list, with 94 home runs, but is likely to soon eclipse that mark.

feather2At 22 years, 314 days, Mike Trout became the youngest player with a multi-home run game in Progressive Field history, breaking the mark previously set by Jim Thome in the stadium’s inaugural season in 1994. The previous youngest visiting player was the Angels’ Darin Erstad, in 1998.

feather2Trout also became the youngest player with a multi-home run game in Cleveland since Ken Griffey Jr, at the age of 20, in 1990. Griffey was the youngest with a multi-home run game in Cleveland Stadium. The youngest Indian with two home runs in Cleveland Stadium was Buddy Bell, at the age of 21 in 1973.

feather2While Bryan Shaw did most of the damage, it was John Axford who was credited with the blown save in the 11th inning of the loss to the Diamondbacks. Axford became the first Indians pitcher with a blown save in the 11th or later since Kerry Wood in the 13th inning against the Cubs in 2009.

feather2The Indians recently played their 75th game of the season, and while Lonnie Chisenhall still doesn’t qualify for the batting title, if you lower the minimum number of plate appearances his stats rank up there with some Indians greats. Chisenhall’s .362 average through 75 games was the highest for an Indians player with at least 200 plate appearances since Sandy Alomar Jr. was batting .372 in 1997.

1 Comment